We’re collecting oyster shells
Help us create a new artwork
To celebrate our 50th anniversary, Quandamooka artist Megan Cope is creating a large-scale artwork at the Sydney Opera House - using your recycled oyster shells!
Workshops
Join Megan in a series of hands-on volunteer workshops, helping to transform shell waste into this artwork. Expect inspiring conversations about where our waste goes, culture, fishing practices, art, ideas and celebrating Country.
Oyster shells collection
We need your help to collect 200,000 oyster shells to bring the project to life. There are two places you can drop your shell waste:
Raw shell waste:
Marked Bins at Sydney Fish Market
Sydney Fish Market
Corner Pyrmont Bridge Rd &, Bank St, Pyrmont NSW 2009
Cleaned oyster shells:
Drop your clean shells to the weekend workshops at Addison Road Community Organisation between 9-4pm
Drill Hall Building 8, 142 Addison Rd, Marrickville NSW 2204
About the Project
Drawing inspiration from Tubowgule as a historic place of ceremony, gathering and celebration in Aboriginal Australia, Quandamooka artist Megan Cope will transform the Sydney Opera House with First Nations storytelling.
In October 2023, to mark the occasion of the Sydney Opera House’s 50th anniversary, Cope will install a new work that honours Tubowgule’s pre-settlement history while considering the environment’s fragility.
More information will be released closer to the date.
Commissioned by Sydney Opera House with the support of the NSW Government through the Blockbusters Funding Initiative.
Community and Project Partners
Sydney Fish Market
Addison Road Community Organisation
Australian Maritime Museum
Holland St Studios
Pyrmont Heritage Boat Club
Sydney Theatre Company
Megan Cope, Kinyingarra Guwinyanba (On Country), 2021-ongoing. Documentation by Cian Saunders. Image courtesy of the artist and Milani Gallery, Meanjin / Brisbane. Credit Cian Saunders
Click to view gallery
Megan Cope
Megan Cope is a Quandamooka Artist. Her site-specific sculptural installations, video work, paintings and public art investigate issues relating to colonial histories, the environment and mapping practices. In 2022 her work was featured in We, On The Rising Wave, Busan Biennale, South Korea, Reclaim the Earth, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France, Embodied Knowledge: Queensland Contemporary Art, Gallery of Queensland, Brisbane as well as The NGV Triennial (2020), Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Monster Theatres at the Art Gallery of South Australia, The TarraWarra Biennial (2021): Slow Moving Waters, The National, Art Gallery of NSW (2017), and Defying Empire: 3rd National Indigenous Art Triennial (2017). In 2017-19 Cope was the Official Australian War Artist. Her work is held in Australian and International collections. She is a member of Aboriginal art collective proppaNOW and is represented by Milani Gallery, Brisbane.
Keep up to date
Contact us
If you want to find out more, please email outreach@sydneyoperhouse.com
